Backstage, the models got buzz cuts, the better to show off their bushy beards and the pelt on their pecs. They slipped into very deep V-neck sweaters, jumpsuits with the word "Hi" emblazoned across the chest in puffy letters, tight shorts, white graffiti-print knee socks and neon-colored sneakers. The music began. Forty hunky hairy guys walked the walk.

The 41st was cult designer Walter Van Beirendonck, who re-staged WONDE®, his spring/summer 2010 Paris men's fashion show, at the Berkeley Art Museum. It was a first for Van Beirendonck, who was in town to be honored at the Academy of Art University's annual graduation festivities and had never staged a fashion show in the United States before. And it was a first for the now slightly less hairy models, none of whom had ever modeled before.

Van Beirendonck is one of the original "Antwerp Six" the avant-garde Belgian designers who include Dries Van Noten, Ann Demeulemeester and Dirk Van Saene, Van Beirendonck's partner of more than 30 years. They've been shaking things up since the mid- '80s with their arty, anti-fashion ideas. Van Beirendonck prospered as a designer and working artist.

The Berkeley runway show was conceived by the hip San Francisco retailers Ben and Chris Ospital of the Grove Street boutique MAC Modern Appealing Clothing, which has carried the designer's work for many years, and coordinated by independent curator Franklin Melendez.

The evening drew about 400 fans, and turned into a love fest for this under-the-radar designer whose logo is an anatomically correct naked, bearded android and whose colorful, conceptual clothes either bring a smile or a shake of the head. A museum curator, college educator, children's book illustrator, costume designer and Web-savvy entrepreneur, the stocky 53-year-old Van Beirendonck has been using burly bearded men as models for years. Last year for his Paris show, he went further by casting the entire runway with men who looked like him. "The idea was as a reaction to all the skinny models in the fashion world, to those girls with anorexia," he said backstage. "I wanted to put on the catwalk these big men with beards."

Walking down a long ramp and around a bright orange rolling hills installation called BAMscape, by Thom Flanders, the models had a hard time keeping straight faces as the audience hooted and hollered. Many in the audience were as colorfully turned out as the Gummi bears, which were there for the taking at the bar.

A rousing standing ovation for the designer closed the show.

Steven Wolfe, editor in chief of Bear Magazine and Teddy Mark, the magazine's creative director, modeled in return for an interview with the designer for Bear magazine.

"It was a George Plimpton moment," said Wolfe, referring to the late writer who famously tried on high-profile jobs such as professional football player and circus aerialist. "I have no experience of modeling but it was kind of cool to become part of the story." Van Beirendonck gave them 90 minutes, and Wolfe plans to use the interview to introduce the designer to the magazine's readers as an international personality. McAllister, who had arrived at the museum directly from playing a losing game with the Lone Star Inferno in the San Francisco Gay Softball League, enjoyed his walk as well. "It was very bizarre, walking in your underwear in front of a couple hundred people," he said. "It was a lot of fun, and very liberating. Once you've done that, you can do anything, can't you?"

The same might be said of Van Beirendonck, known for his nonconformist ideas, colors, graphics, sexual references, and political statements - he once did a knit burqua-like sweater for men. (A fan wore one to the show.)

His clothes aren't for everyone, and not easy to find. MAC in San Francisco carries the entire line - one of four stores in the United States to do so.

"Department stores are afraid of me," said the designer. "Shops that work with me have to be flexible, they have to really understand the creativity of a designer."

The new collection arrived at MAC a few weeks ago. "We're carrying the entire spring line, all of it," Ben Ospital said. "To have him do a show here ... amazing!"